May 1, 2008

Brief encounters with the semi-famous

Loobylu has a fun meme up today about meaningless celebrity encounters and I thought I'd play along for fun. I am lousy at recognizing people out of context and usually have to have people pointed out to me. Also, my definition of celebrity is pretty broad as you will shortly see.

When I was in grade nine my mom and I met King Juan Carlos of Spain at a reception at the BC Museum of Anthropology. My mom was quick to note that he was ogling the women in the Haida dance troop performing at the event. We even made the local paper when we got back. Let's just say I grew up in a small town.

At university, I had a part time job as an usher at the university theater and worked an event where David Suzuki was the keynote speaker. He ordered take-out Chinese food but refused to eat it until someone brought chopsticks to the Green Room. During his talk the fire alarm went off twice and we had to evacuate the auditorium. Karma?

Also while at university I saw the Barenaked Ladies play at a local bar. This was before they had their first record deal but they had a demo cassette that they were selling for $5 between sets. My friend and I went up to the stage and tried to get Ed to give us 3 for $10 but he wouldn't do it. As I recall he was rather indignant about it. Good concert, though.

In 1992 I had a summer job in Montreal and was subletting an apartment right downtown just around the corner from the Ritz Carlton Hotel. One Sunday morning I saw Boris Yeltsin get into a car. There was a small crowd of people and we gave him a round of applause and he waved at us.

Also at the Ritz, I bumped into the Prime Minister with a bag of bagels. My roommate and I were walking home loaded with groceries and the aforementioned fresh bagels (this was in my pre-celiac days). There were a lot of people standing in front of the hotel doors and I had to push my way through to get by and ran right into Brian Mulroney. I don't think he or his bodyguards even noticed.

Finally, to round out my six most meaningless celebrity encounters, I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman at a restaurant while having brunch in Manhattan a few summers ago. He was wearing a baseball cap and looked like he hadn't shaved or showered in days. I wouldn't have recognized him if my friends hadn't pointed him out.

So who are your six most forgettable run-ins with the rich and famous?